Former HDP deputy Encü given 10-month jail sentence

Former pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Şırnak deputy Ferhat Encü has been handed down a 10-month jail sentence that was ultimately commuted to a fine by a Turkish court, Turkish media outlets reported on Tuesday.

Encü was given the jail sentence during the final hearing of his trial on Tuesday on charges of insulting the government, judicial organs and the security forces of Turkey.

A case was filed against Encü, who is currently in pretrial detention as part of another case, for refusing to allow the search of the house he was in by security forces in February 2016 in Şırnak’s İdil district.

The incident took place during clashes between the Turkish military and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) over PKK militants digging trenches in some neighborhoods in the country’s Southeast in order to deny security forces access to those areas.

Encü was first arrested in a police operation on Nov. 4, 2016 along with eight other deputies including the party’s then Co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ. He was released from Kandıra Prison in February 2017 but arrested again the same month.

In June 2017, Encü was handed down a prison sentence of 55 months, 10 days on terror charges by a Şırnak court.

In February 2018, the Turkish Parliament stripped Encü of his parliamentary status because an appeals court upheld jail sentences he was given on charges of disseminating the propaganda of a terrorist organization and acting in contravention of provincial administrative law.